Job 40:1-5

Job 40:1-5 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. When Job tried to answer the Lord, he soon realized that he had nothing to say. How can anyone argue with God! That is crazy talk! When you think of a point that you could make, God already has that point figured out. How can you argue with Someone Who knows everything? And if that isn’t enough of an advantage that God has, He also knows what you are thinking! God is so far ahead of man that it isn’t even funny. And Job finally figured that out. The only thing that Job could do was just to put his hand over his mouth. God had won. Job had good arguments with his three friends, but he had nothing to say to Almighty God. And we are no better than Job. If we read it in God’s Holy Word, we just have to believe it. We can’t argue. We can’t offer excuses. We just have to say, “God, you are right and I am wrong."

Job 19:25

Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: Even in all of his troubles, Job never gave up on God. That is because Job knew that God would never give up on him! Our heavenly Father loves us and watches over us. But because of Adam’s sin, we will die someday. But God has already made provision for that day. God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to redeem us. The word redeem means to buy back. What Adam lost in his rebellion in the Garden of Eden, Jesus bought back in His obedience to death on the cross. And somehow, Job knew that there was going to be a Redeemer someday. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Job talks about the coming Messiah Who would take away his sins. And this same Jesus will take away our sins too! I can’t wait to thank Jesus for taking away my sins, can you? Hey, wait a minute, we can pray and thank Him right now, can’t we?

Job 23:10

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This is a great verse from the book of Job. Job is reminding his three friends that God knows his heart. God knows what he is doing and why he is doing it. And Job is willing to rest in God and let God be in charge of his life. Job says that God will do what is right and eventually, his three friends will know the truth. Job uses a picture of a refiner who is purifying gold. The Gold is mixed with impurities, so the refiner heats it hot, hot. Gold is heavy, so it sinks to the bottom of the liquid metals. The refiner pours off the impure metals from the top of the melting pot. Then he heats it up again. As the mixture gets hot again and turns to liquid, more of the impure metals float to the top and again are poured off. Eventually, only the pure gold is left in the refiner’s pot. That is what Job was going through. God was letting Satan torment Job, but Job was faithful to God. After Satan’s torture, Job actually trusted God more than he did before Satan’s attacks. Job became stronger! If we trust God, He will help us to become stronger and stronger. God will never put more on us than we can handle. God does not want to break us; God wants to strengthen us! Unlike Satan, God loves us and wants only what is best for us.

Job 11:4-6

Job 11:4-6 For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes. But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee; And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Zophar is Job’s third friend. Zophar has a holier-than-thou attitude when he speaks. He thinks that he is better than Job. Zophar goes on to say that Job is not even getting all that he should get from God’s judgment. But is God judging Job? No, Satan is tormenting Job. So when Zophar thinks he has it all figured out, he actually knows nothing of what is really going on in Job’s life. How do you think Job feels when his so-called friends accuse him of sin? Job knows that he is innocent, but his friends are accusing him of sin! They don’t trust Job and they don’t believe Job. Not very good friends. I hope we have better friends than Job!

Job 9:13,14

Job 9:13,14 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him? Bildad was the second of Job’s friends to speak to him. Bildad likes to argue. He says that Job is proud and will not admit that he has sinned. Bildad says that Job’s sin is the reason that all of these bad things are happening to him. But is that true? Is Job being punished because of secret evil in his heart? No, of course not. Job is suffering because Satan is bothering him. Job loves God and is trying to serve God the best that he can. But Bildad doesn’t believe Job. Bildad says that Job should confess his secret sins. But we know that Job is a good man. That is a good lesson for us. We should be careful when we accuse someone of secret sin. The truth is, we don’t know what is in their heart. We don’t know if they are being tested by God or tormented by Satan. So we should be careful when we judge someone else. Just like Bildad, we don’t know the whole story. We don’t know what is in someone’s heart. But Who knows what is in the heart? God knows. And we should let God be the judge, not us.

Job 5:6,7

Job 5:6,7 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Eliphaz seemed to be the spokesman of the three. He told Job that trouble didn’t just come up out of the ground. There was always a reason for a man’s trouble. Man just seemed to always get into trouble. But was Job’s trouble because he did something wrong? Or was Job’s trouble because Satan was giving Job grief? Temptation comes from Satan, but testing comes from God. Satan tries to get us to sin and to do bad things. But God’s testing is not to get us to sin. God tests us so that we can see what kind of a person we are. It is like a boy who lifts a barbell weight. He adds more and more weight until he can’t lift the weights. Then he knows his limit. He knows how much he can bear. And God tests us, just like that. God is not trying to get us to sin; God is wanting us to see how much difficulty that we can carry. But which is it? Are we being tempted by Satan or testing by God? Well, actually, we might never know. Testing from God and temptation from Satan sometimes both look the same. And so our response to either should be the same. We should do what is right either way. If Satan tempts us, we should do right. If God tests us, we should do right. Our response should always be the same: Do Right!